ISTANBUL, Turkey – Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin to hold a preparatory meeting for a quadripartite summit on Syria as French, German and Russian representatives to attend the meeting in Istanbul.

GENEVA, Switzerland – UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura to meet representatives of Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the U.K. and the U.S. to discuss constitutional committee for Syria.

ALEPPO/IDLIB/HOMS – Desk to monitor Syrian civil war.

YEMEN

SANAA – Following developments in Yemen's civil war.

SPORTS

ANKARA – Turkey's national basketball team to play against Montenegro in their first match of the second round of the 2019 FIBA European Qualifiers.

MARMARIS – The 10th round of the World Rally Championship (WRC) will continue in Marmaris, southwestern Turkey.

SPECIAL REPORTS:

Is Russia preparing for the next great war?

By Elena Teslova and Fatih Hafız Mehmet

MOSCOW/ANKARA – With 300,000 military men, more than 1,000 planes, helicopters and UAVs, 36,000 tanks, and 80 naval ships Russia is showing off its military might in the largest-ever war games in the country's history.

Pakistan air chief praises Pak-Turk defense partnership

By Ahmet Salih Alacaci

ANKARA – Islamabad wants to "enhance and augment" its relations with Turkey, the Pakistan Air Force chief said on Thursday.

US acting solo on Taliban peace talks: Russian envoy

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW – The U.S. prefers acting solo in the Taliban reconciliation process and does not take into account interests of Afghanistan's regional partners and neighbors, the Russian presidential envoy to Afghanistan said.